


Then

by ramosal



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Interrogator Prowl, No Plot/Plotless, No Romance, Paranoid Orion, Plotless Musings, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-23
Updated: 2019-03-23
Packaged: 2019-11-28 23:22:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18215057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ramosal/pseuds/ramosal
Summary: Set after the 'Transformers Annual 2017' (Ghost Stories). Orion Pax is interested to know just exactly what Bumblebee saw in his Decepticon-given visions...





	Then

**Author's Note:**

> A little something I wrote last summer, so I decided to polish and upload it because... I just like talking, thinking, and writing about Bumblebee, basically...

_Long story short, I think I might need a new job..._

Whether they needed help or not wasn’t the issue. As the Decepticon movement grew, so did the Iaconian crime rate. Besides, one stubborn remnant of the apartheid was a lack of diversity. Officers were easy to spot, on account of the fact they were almost always tall and always heavily armoured. Not to mention the attitude that came with eons of telling other ‘bots what to do, where to be, and how to conduct themselves. Bumblebee was almost the exact opposite of what an officer should look and behave like. Orion couldn’t deny that his presence would be useful, and he was almost sure that Prowl was thinking the same thing. It showed in the quickness of his response.

‘Suits me,’ he said. ‘We’ll need to take you back to the station anyway for processing.’

‘I’m sure that won’t be necessary,’ said Orion.

Prowl was already walking away, and Bumblebee looked torn over whether he should follow after him, or stay put with Orion.

‘Keeping up-to-date logs is always necessary,’ Prowl was saying. ‘Do you want this kid walking around with a criminal record?’

‘That’s not what I -’

Orion stopped himself, deciding now was probably not the time to throw doubt onto somebody who had already been through a trialing ordeal. Bumblebee was yet to move, his attention caught between Prowl’s slow departure, and the arrival of the fire containment crews sent to bring the blaze in the Decepticon hideout under control.

‘It’s fine,’ Bumblebee said eventually. ‘I don’t mind. It's not like I have anywhere else to be...’

‘Well, it shouldn’t take long,’ Orion said as they drew level with Prowl. ‘You’ll be processed as a witness now we know the circumstances behind your involvement. Remember, you haven’t done anything wrong.’

At this, Bumblebee ducked his chin to his chest.

‘If you say so…’

‘Trust me,’ Prowl said, tearing his optics away from the datapad he was carrying. ‘Compared to the induction process into the academy, being processed is going to be the least of _your_ worries.’

Orion clunked his elbow against Prowl’s side, which earned him nothing but barely constrained amusement. Prowl knew as well as Orion that other officers, especially those involved in the training process, were going to give Bumblebee a hard time. Not just for his size, or his alt-mode. Although not useless on an officer, a nippy, unarmoured ground vehicle lacked the strong and commanding presence expected in a police service. They were supposed to enforce and maintain order. Orion would never voice it, but he feared the smaller ‘bot wouldn’t be taken seriously. He had a bravery and strength that had to be _seen_ to be believed, and few at the academy would afford Bumblebee that time. It was more likely he would be judged on his looks first. Especially by targets and suspects, who might hope to take advantage of his gentle demeanour.

To keep up with their longer strides, Bumblebee was half-walking, half-jogging between them both. He hadn’t noticed the non-verbal exchange going on above his head at least.

‘Oh, I’m not worried,’ he said. ‘I’m going to really give it my all.’

Prowl directed a smirk at Orion, no doubt revelling in his quiet chagrin. ‘Yeah. You do that.’

‘I’ll conduct the interview once we return,’ Orion said, desperate to change the topic.

He wanted to make sure things were done thoroughly. Since they weren’t able to apprehend any of the the Decepticons involved, it’d be too easy for officers outside of the investigation to infer Bumblebee was guilty by default.

Prowl shrugged. ‘As you wish. I’ll sit in with you. Should speed up the process a little.’

‘Uh, interview?’ Bumblebee asked.

‘A formality really,’ said Prowl. ‘An update on the first interview you gave, since that one was interrupted -’

‘You’re also a key witness,’ Orion added. ‘We’ll need to refer to your case during the resulting investigation. As you said back there, who knows how many other innocents have been caught up in these Decepticon mind games.’

If he hadn’t been worrying before, Bumblebee certainly gave the appearance of worrying now.

‘Well, okay,’ he said, looking down at his feet. ‘If it’ll help other folks, I’ll do it. No problem at all…’

 

There was definitely a problem. Any confidence Bumblebee had had outside of the station evaporated the moment he was shut in the interviewing room. Orion ushered him to his seat before taking his own, Prowl already opposite him, able to split his attention between whatever was happening on his datapad, and the current goings on in the room around him. This time, Bumblebee was not stasis-cuffed, but he placed his hands flat on the desk anyway as if expecting it. Prowl read a memorised statement so that Bumblebee would understand he was being recorded and what could potentially happen with the information he gave. And then without pause, he launched straight into his first line of questioning.

‘So you were a courier up until a short while ago, is that correct?’

‘Yes,’ said Bumblebee.

‘And how would you secure work?’

‘Uh, well,’ he started, ‘it’s the kind of thing you build a reputation for -’

‘So you were hired based on recommendations, previously satisfied customers; that kind of thing?’

‘Yes, but -’

‘Can you expand on that?’

Bumblebee’s smile faltered, but he straightened in his seat, determined to please.

‘Nowadays - or, rather… I _was_ asked for by name,’ he said. ‘Either I’d delivered to the person before, or I’d delivered something _for_ them. If not them, then their friend, or a colleague… I guess my name got passed along -’

‘Right,’ Prowl interrupted. ‘So presumably it wasn’t usual for you to pick up an unknown delivery.’

‘No…’ Bumblebee answered. ‘Not really.’

He was beginning to look flustered, but Prowl was unmoved. In the time it took Orion to consider interjecting, he was already halfway through his next question.

‘Then you wouldn’t see something lying around with an address on it, and take it upon yourself to see the package to its destination?’

‘No,’ Bumblebee said again, sounding affronted. ‘Except -’

Prowl had his palms up, bidding him to stay silent.

‘I just want to establish that the behaviour you admitted to in your earlier interview was strictly one-of-a-kind. That is to say, you didn’t make a habit of delivering things left out in the open, with no known source.’

‘That’s right.’

‘All of your deliveries were given to you by other ‘bots. Straight from their servos, into yours. Would you say that’s accurate?’

Bumblebee nodded, locking his fingers together. Prowl was looking at his datapad, but he didn’t miss a beat.

‘Can you state your answer verbally?’

‘Y-Yes,’ said Bumblebee. ‘And yes, that’s… That’s accurate…’

‘Remind us then. What changed?’ Prowl spun the datapad on the desk so that Bumblebee could see it the right way up. ‘I’m showing the witness a map of their location concerning an incident of data-mining at the Iaconian Civic Centre.’ He tapped the screen, refusing time for Bumblebee to comment on the first one. ‘Now another map, recording the witness’ location at the Memorial Park on the same night Decepticon activity was observed -’

Orion pulled the datapad back out of Bumblebee’s view, stalling Prowl’s spiel.

‘What Prowl is asking for, Bumblebee, is that you explain how you came to know of the deliveries not given to you in the conventional way.’

‘I’ve already told you,’ he said, a little shaken. ‘And you saw - it happened again when I was being interviewed the first time. They were - the Decepticons, that is - they were manipulating my thoughts and -’

‘Nobody is disputing what happened,’ Orion said, attempting to soothe him. ‘We just want to hear in your own words, the circumstances that led you to the packages, and why you chose to deliver them.’

‘Because they were _making_ me,’ Bumblebee said.

‘How were they making you?’ Prowl cut in.

Bumblebee glanced at Orion in exasperation.

‘In your own words,’ he encouraged. ‘You’re under no judgement here.’

‘I… They were… In dreams and sometimes when I was awake -’

‘You’re going to have to be more clear,’ Prowl said.

‘Visions,’ Bumblebee blurted out.

He paused, as if expecting a stronger reaction than the one he got. Prowl was as stoic as ever, leaning back in his chair, arms folded. Beside him, sat to attention, Orion was waiting patiently for Bumblebee to continue. Most of his expression, one he liked to think reflected the sympathy he was feeling, was hidden behind his faceplate.

‘I-I tried ignoring them at first,’ Bumblebee said softly. ‘But I couldn’t rest... I kept making mistakes at work… I didn’t know how to tell anyone… I thought nobody would _believe_ me, so I figured… if I just followed the instructions in the first one, it would all stop. That I could sleep again.’

‘And what were these visions saying to you?’ Prowl asked.

‘To go places,’ he answered with reluctance.

‘Would you see the places in your visions?’

‘Sometimes…’

‘And the other times?’

‘I-It doesn’t really matter,’ Bumblebee said. ‘Whatever I _saw_ , the main thing was that I was being told what to do.’

‘Can you give us an example?’ Orion asked. ‘Of what one of these visions looked like?’

Bumblebee dropped his hands in his lap and turned to face the left-most wall.

‘It was… just orders,’ he said, pulling at his fingers with discomfort. ‘Voices telling me I was chosen… That sort of thing.’ He sighed. ‘Can we stop talking about this now?’

Prowl looked to Orion. Even he knew when someone being interviewed had had enough.

‘We’re almost done,’ Orion said, leaning forwards in his chair. ‘We just need to recount what happened earlier, and then it’ll be over.’

 

Once they were outside, the sky on the horizon was already being warmed by the dawn. Orion noted internally that there would be no point to him going home. Not when his next shift was due to start in a matter of hours. Better to spend the time helping Prowl file in the new investigation. The sooner that was done, the sooner he could put Bumblebee forward for the next line of recruiting.

‘So what now?’ Bumblebee asked.

They had been on the go since the morning previously; Orion assumed Bumblebee had gotten up for work - or rather, to _look_ for work - just as he would have done any other day before they’d spent all night dealing with the Decepticons. Yet he was still chipper. Unaffected by the long stint of activity. Nightly recharging wasn’t essential for every ‘bot, but he was still surprised at Bumblebee’s lack of exhaustion. Orion, on the other hand, felt like he could collapse into a three-day-long stasis, if only he had the time.

‘I’ll escort you home, then you should get some rest,’ he said.

‘Thanks,’ said Bumblebee, ‘but that’s okay. I can make my own way home.’

‘I don’t doubt that,’ said Orion. ‘After last night, I just want to make sure you get there without any interference.’

In truth, it was for his own peace of mind. The Decepticon threat was looming. Offshoots of the movement were popping up through the cracks in the form of random acts of violence, indiscriminate attacks to public spaces, and targeted assaults on anyone brandishing an Autobot badge. Besides, they already had Jetfire to look out for, who was yet to cut ties with his less savoury friends. Not that Orion supposed an Autobot and a Decepticon couldn’t be friends, but if he could avoid it, he would rather not have more than one ‘bot on his team visiting both sides of the fence.

Bumblebee’s experience with the Decepticons may have shaken him, but it could also have left him open to subversion. If nothing else, walking him home would help Orion understand his normal routine; the people he talked to, and the places he passed, among other things.

‘Please. Lead the way,’ said Orion.

Nodding, Bumblebee beckoned for Orion to follow him. As they walked away from the station and towards the nearest speedway, uncertainty beset him. Although they had only known each other for a matter of hours, Orion was beginning to think this was a normal expression for Bumblebee. So far, he seemed to sway solely between contentment and worry.

The drive took them out of Iacon’s centre, and towards the suburban sprawl of towering apartments and local businesses supported by reliable foot traffic. To get to the residencies encircling the city’s edges, they had to abandon their alt-modes and walk. Bumblebee led him through thin alleyways and cluttered front streets. Every so often, he would be recognised by somebody, or he would recognise somebody else, and the pair would exchange a friendly greeting. He also stopped more than once to drop spare shanix into the waiting hands of beggars, and Orion felt compelled to do the same. Living in central Iacon kept such struggles out of his line of view usually; under Sentinel’s rule, and now Zeta’s, the impoverished and outmoded were forced to eke out their livings away from upper echelons of society. To ‘bots like Bumblebee, they were just part of the everyday landscape.

‘You do realise they’re just going to spend it on circuit boosters, right?’ Orion found himself checking.

He spent enough time cleaning the streets of the addicted, twitching and leaking from every crevice, to know. Ratchet was overworked even without their secretly-run clinic, and as much as he wanted to, Orion knew he could not attend to all of society’s most vulnerable. Some were going to find themselves at the wrong end of Autobot law enforcement, whilst others, if lucky enough not to overdose, would find themselves exploited by Decepticon rhetoric.

‘Not all of them will,’ Bumblebee said with confidence.

A few strides later, his shoulders had slumped earthward. He seemed to be scouring the ground, brow heavy with concern.

‘I just… I feel so bad,’ he admitted.

‘I understand,’ Orion said. ‘I didn’t mean it as a criticism. Your generosity is actually quite admirable.’

Bumblebee looked up at him. ‘I keep hoping, walking this same route, there’ll be one less person eventually. But it doesn’t work like that. There’s usually one or two _more_.’

‘We’re all living under hard times,’ agreed Orion.

‘Sure,’ said Bumblebee, ‘but… Do you think - once my training is over - there’s something we can do about that? I mean, do _you_ get to do anything about it?’

Orion shook his head. ‘Not officially.’

‘Oh,’ Bumblebee sounded.

He made a point of looking into a window to their left. The further they went, the more crooked the buildings became. Panels were peeling up from the floor, and mounds of discarded scrap littered the street corners, kicked underfoot as they walked.

Orion found himself saying, ‘Although, in time, I may be able to introduce you to someone who values that altruistic attitude of yours.’

This drew Bumblebee’s attention again.

Had he been talking to anybody else, Orion would not have felt so trusting. But there was something about Bumblebee that seemed genuine. Like he could tell him every secret he had, and those secrets would be preserved in the smaller ‘bot’s brain module until it stopped clicking. He had to remind himself that this might not be the case.

‘ _Vague_ ,’ Bumblebee said, amused, ‘but okay… I’d like that.’

His attention was distracted momentarily as, above them, a trine of fliers cut through the stars in clean formation.

‘Lucky,’ Orion heard him say quietly.

‘Maybe,’ he said in answer. ‘I know a flier who would say otherwise.’

As if abashed to have been heard, Bumblebee brought his hands to his chassis, and looked down at himself. ‘R-Right, but... I don’t know. I’ve just always wondered what things must look like from all the way up there.’

His tone was wistful, and he had a warming smile. A warming effect in general, that Orion was not used to. Looking around, he had not seen so much hardship and strife in one small space before. This was the kind of neighbourhood that came with certain expectations. Trouble, coarseness; a breed of people who were used to chafing under an ever-roughening system, with little to their names but an overwhelming sense of apathy. And yet here was a ‘bot walking these paths back-and-forth everyday, who spent all of his time looking up instead of down.

Perhaps it was his youth. The eons were yet to erode his idealism. Whereas for Orion, cycles upon cycles of stagnation had jaded his sense of belief that things could, and would, get better. Small differences were doable, but bigger changes… Structural, societal changes… He wondered if he would ever see them in his lifetime.

‘Do you live nearby?’ Orion ventured, to disperse his malaise.

There were fewer lights, the apartment windows that were not facing their nearest stars licked with shadows.

‘Not far now,’ Bumblebee said cheerfully. ‘Do you need to be somewhere? I don’t mind walking the rest of the way on my own-’

‘No, nowhere to be,’ Orion said, palms up in a soothing gesture. ‘I was curious, that’s all…’ He allowed time for pause as the alleyway opened up onto a vacant courtyard. ‘Do you… get much of a Decepticon presence around here?’

‘Uh, sure,’ Bumblebee said, ‘as much as anywhere else.’

‘So otherwise, it’s quiet?’

Bumblebee considered him for a moment. ‘I know it looks shady,’ he said, ‘but for most folks, it’s just somewhere to sleep after a long day.’

‘You misunderstand me,’ Orion was quick to say. ‘I’m not judging -’

‘Look, we’re here.’

The apartment blocks were obscenely tall, tall enough for Orion to wonder if they were even structurally safe. A far cry from what he called home; he was lucky enough to have a spacious, three-roomed complex overlooking Iacon’s business quarter. From the large windows, he enjoyed watching the rush of people in the early hours of the morning, and late hours of the evening. The windows on this building, however, glinted in thin strips, so narrow that it was a wonder any natural light permeated the glass at all.

‘Thanks for walking me,’ Bumblebee said as they approached the main entrance.

They paused outside for a moment, Orion looking upwards, the higher rooms disappearing above a drifting cloud of smog.

‘It, uh, doesn’t meet your approval, does it?’ Bumblebee quipped.

Orion tilted his head down, the acrid accents of oil and grime and the general look of degradation to the place making it hard for him to keep an even tone.

‘What do you mean?’

‘I know you and Prowl think I’m naive,’ he said, clasping his hands in front of his chassis with nerves. ‘But I know why you’re here. This is my background check, isn’t it?’

Despite his hesitancy, Bumblebee’s gaze was unfaltering.

‘Not exactly,’ Orion admitted, ‘but to put you at ease, I’ll be honest with you, Bumblebee. I wanted to make sure you were not at risk of… colluding with any Decepticons. After your ordeal -’

‘My _ordeal_ ,’ Bumblebee repeated back, propping his chin between his forefinger and thumb in thought.

‘You were very unforthcoming in your follow-up interview.’

He appeared incredulous. ‘In what way exactly?’

In being forced to ask, Orion felt his inner mechanisms smart with shame. He was afraid that his need to know would appear perverse. Or be so obviously rooted in paranoia, that it would not be easily attributable to innocent curiosity, like he hoped.

That fear alone seemed to darken his inflection.

‘What did they show you in those visions?’ he heard himself demanding.

Bumblebee shuddered. He tipped his head down, arms lowered and rigid down by his sides.

‘What do you think?’ he mumbled.

‘Propaganda,’ Orion shot off, ‘subliminal messaging, something that might take effect when you least expect it. Code words that could turn your affiliations at a moment’s notice.’ He patted the Autobot insignia on his chassis in emphasis. ‘The fact you refused to confirm the contents of the visions… That, to me, is concerning.’

Bumblebee’s expression was purely skeptical. He put his hands to his hips, staring hard, the blue of his optics dimming with his irritation.

‘Well I can tell you now it was none of that -’

Orion held up his hand to silence him. ‘How can you know?’

‘Because it was…’ Bumblebee crossed his arms over his chest, hunching over a little with discomfort. ‘It was like I was being tortured.’

After uttering the last word, he glanced up at Orion, looking unsure. As if he was already regretting the admission.

Without saying anything, Orion lowered himself to kneel before him. He was still taller than Bumblebee even at this height, but the aim was to make the conversation more personable. Less like a position of authority demanding information, and more like two friends talking to one another.

It seemed to work, if only a little. Bumblebee considered him, but still frowning, said,

‘I can invite you inside if you’re getting tired...'

‘That’s fine,’ Orion said.

He distinctly felt putting them on a more equal footing in this way was unappreciated, some kind of faux pas, but to save face, he kept with it.

‘You were saying?’

Bumblebee straightened, looking abashed. ‘Huh… Well, they were trying to make me feel afraid… That’s all.’

‘And did you?’ Orion asked. ‘Feel afraid?’

Narrowing his optics, Bumblebee became more animated in his frustration.

‘C'mon, they didn't want the arrangement to be long-term,’ he said, ignoring the last question, ‘not if you think about it.’ He tapped the side of his helm. ‘Any one of those parcels could have malfunctioned during transit. And if I hadn’t handed myself in, you or Prowl or somebody else would have just tracked me down anyway… So… No… If the Decepticons _had_ wanted to indoctrinate me or whatever,’ he said this with a dismissive wave of his hands, shooing the notion away, ‘they could have - and  _should_ have - just _talked_ to me.’

Orion tilted his head in consideration, measuring his tone so as not to sound too alarmed.

‘Would you have listened?’

‘I don’t know,’ Bumblebee sighed, not afraid to be frank. ‘Maybe. But they _didn’t_ talk to me. They messed with my head… They made me feel alone… I don’t wanna be around people like that…’

Exhaling, vents huffing, Orion reached out to put a hand on Bumblebee’s shoulder. He didn’t reject the contact, but flinched, as if surprised.

‘I’m glad you feel that way,’ Orion said.

This earned him a kind smile, more relaxed posturing, so Orion took the opportunity to lift himself back to full height.

‘I’m sorry I had to ask again,’ he added. ‘I can tell you’re reluctant to talk about exactly what it was you saw…’

Bumblebee shrugged, gaze hardening.

‘I don’t think repeating it would benefit anyone. Least of all me.'

Although he was still so curious, Orion could respect that. There were occasional horrors in his line of work, after all. Some things were just not meant to be dwelt upon.

'Besides,' Bumblebee then said, looking to the floor again, 'I have other things to think about and look forward to now.’

As if conscious of his lot, of how far down the rung his alt mode and the circumstances of his forging had landed him, he cast a glance over his shoulder at the looming tower block behind him. Not for the first time since meeting him, Orion was confident that this little yellow 'bot would overcome any adversity thrown his way.

'Indeed,' he acknowledged, the word warmed by his own sense of pride. ‘I’ll be in contact with you when your application has moved forward. For now... Try to stay out of trouble.’

In return, Bumblebee offered him a beaming smile.

‘Thanks, Orion. I’ll try...'

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you if you got this far. Please leave kudos and comments! I'd love to know your thoughts and I'd appreciate the feedback if you could spare a few seconds to give some.


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